Food and Fads

Food and Fads

I am not a diet doctor or an expert in anyway, I just love food. Food it turns out does not always loved me. My Mum was both a raging hippie and terrified I'd get diabetes like my Dad. Sugar was the enemy in our house. We also had quite a low meat diet. At about 8 I became a vegetarian. I even avoided mainstream dairy (we had and milked our own goats) raw milk was what we had. 
If I was stressed I'd throw up and I had a lot of tummy pains but this was my "drama Queen tendencies" and "growing pains". I was also quite under weight and always, always hungry. They called me "Lucy bin" because if you couldn't finish yours, I'd eat it. 
My Mum was a fat-phobic, fat-shaming person. 
I began cooking my own food at about age 11. I think I'm a pretty good cook.
After I meet my super abusive ex and his family my gut troubles came back. They were all about pre-packaged instant food. They had cupboards of crisps and pop. I got sick again and my first dance with IBS started then. At Uni  we were living together and I was so sick I could barely keep anything down. I even had a gastroscope and my gut was really unhappy but no-one cared why. As I was leaving that relationship I meet someone (importantly someone thin and attractive) whom had sworn off  meat and dairy. She was ahead of the curve. And so years before it became trendy I became vegan again. 
I lost a lot of weight but my gut were no more happy than when I had been eating meat and dairy.
That is when my now husband and I got together. He was even vegan for a while, not that I made him. 
Then I got pregnant. I had several cravings but the big one, the one that was BIG and PRIMAL and unrelenting was meat. Steak to be exact. As rare as I could get it. 
And so I was back to eating meat, but still low to no dairy. Still lots of complex carbs, and a lot of beans (we were poor). I felt bad about it. Even meals that weren't veggie were low meat. A bit of sausage here, cured meats for flavour. It was never the primary focus it was carbs and veg. In fact vegetable stews and soup and rice based dished were sometimes all we lived on. 
My eldest daughter was lactose intolerant. So we had soy-based dairy alternatives. Yet as she grew older she was less and less irritated and so was I.
I've had fibro flares since my late teens and the pattern would be I'd get sick (whatever was going around) and then I'd "get the flu". My bones would ache, my fever rocketed, I couldn't move. I just got used to that.
Then I hit 30. 
I got sick and it didn't go away. I couldn't get out of bed. I could barely walk and to be frank most doctors didn't give a shit. So I decided to try not only a vegan diet again, but a raw one. This was the turning point. Because I didn't get better, I got a 100 times worse. I was doing everything "right" and my guts were terrible, and I was super sick.
Seven months in I caved. I caved and had what I swear I'd even been dreaming about, steak. Two things happened. I discovered I felt much better and I didn't spend the next day shitting. 
I struggled because sometimes I seemed to be able to eat something, then the next time I couldn't. I already made everything from scratch, even bread. I became an Omnomivore. I tried to eat a bit of everything. Yet I was frightened of fat, and meat. I limited those even though I often felt amazing after eating them because it was so opposite to what had been drilled into me my whole life. "Fat is bad". 
I struggled through. Shitting in pub loos, and public loos while trying not to cry as my whole body seemed to be retching covered in cold sweat. Embarrassed and confused. 
I don't remember how I found Keto. I'm not a "diet person". Except I suppose I am. I think we were at a health stall in the market and someone said "you should try gluten free".
So we did. It helped a bit. I wasn't quite as bloated. I started looking into gluten free and I guess that is how I found Keto, and by proxy AIP. 
I don't know if I could say I follow either of them strictly. Yet I have found low-carb, and higher meat and fat makes me fuller and less erratic. I can skip a meal and not feel like I am dying, something I'd never heard of before. (Now I'll just have a Bovril and wait until dinner.) 
I began to feel better. It wasn't and isn't perfect but it is much better.
At Christmas time I got a recipe book. It was specific to Fibro. It really helped, and I already had a lot of the store cupboard stuff like coconut flour, coconut oil, almond flour and so on. 
I still get bad guts sometimes.
It isn't  perfect but it is much, much better. 
My advice to my fellow fibro-warriors is this: no off the shelf diet will be perfect for you. Your health and gut will be unique. Start your diet changes small. Nothing sudden as this can cause a bad flare. Look after your gut flora. I don't just mean the stuff you buy in bottles (again that is generic not your balance). Eat fermented foods, especially if you can make them, from kimchi to piccalilli. Add bone broth and add more bones to your stew and such. Don't suddenly cut something. Cut it down first, slowly. Maybe your diet needs to be very different than mine. That is fine. Being sensitive to one or maybe many of the foods in the Belladonna family, like potatoes (I lived on spuds as a student, like really), peppers, chilli, and tomatoes is quite common too. I don't do well with regular studs, which blows my mind. Also raw chilli, dried isn't so bad but fresh of any kind messes me up. I can eat tomatoes but if they are under-ripe is doesn't feel good either.  It also explains why I have such an aversion to cigarette smoke. 
I'm fine with blueberries and aubergine (eggplant) but some people aren't. 
I don't react to eggs, but I do get mine from a local, free-range and organic source. I like a protein high breakfast, and fresh duck eggs fried over some salty greens is delicious. 
My diet is paleo/AIP/Keto ish. Some of all of them work for me. A hearty breakfast with lots of greens and fats (the horror) means I can live with a cup of Bovril and a snack of some nuts until dinner. I have to fast around my meds so by the time I can eat I ravenous anyway!
Be kind to yourself fibrowarriors. Spend some time gently figuring it out.